Oracle rolls out first fusion-born BI offering for SMBs

Oracle has announced a new packaging of its business intelligence technology that is aimed at small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) previously priced-out by its enterprise-class platform.
The Oracle BI Standard Edition One (SE One) builds on the same Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition (EE) product the company introduced a year and a half ago that incorporates technology acquired from Siebel Analytics and home-grown Oracle reporting tools.

SE One includes Oracle's core OLAP analysis, ad hoc and production reporting, and role-based interactive dashboard tools as well as a Standard Edition One of the Oracle's 10g database, the Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) ETL tool for building data warehouses and marts, and Oracle's core BI Server infrastructure that provides a unified metadata layer across all the end-user products.

Dave Planeaux, director of BI product marketing at Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle, said the SE was specially tailored for SMBs and large workgroups within organisations in terms of packaging, functionality and price.

"We have basically included everything you need - reporting, analysis, dashboarding and building data marts to get a BI and data warehousing system running. And at a price-point that is approachable for SMBs."

Pricing for the SE One software starts at $1000 per user - with a minimum of five users and maximum of 50 users.That is a much lower entry cost than the EE which sells for $15 000 users (or $225 000 per processor) with a minimum of 50 users.

Planeaux also said that SE One comes with a greatly simplified installation process. "We are providing a single install for all the suite's components that run on a single server."

Oracle had been selling another BI product at this same market for several years - Oracle BI Standard Edition which is based on Oracle's Discoverer product packaged up with the Oracle Application Server Enterprise Edition.

But Planeaux said the new SE was the first Fusion-led BI foray into the SMB space. Fusion is the name for Oracle's modern SOA-based architecture for tying together all its various applications and tools.

Functionally the SE One includes more or less the same capabilities as EE but without some bells and whistles like proactive alerting and disconnected analysis.

Also in SE One's BI Server, the number of data sources that customers can connect to is also limited to an Oracle database plus one other relational source. Access to flat file sources is however unlimited.

While Planeaux believes that connecting to a multitude of data sources will not a pressing issue for most SMBs, he does point out that SE One customers can use the included OWB tool to integrate data from other sources into an Oracle database.

Because SE One is built on more or less the same technology as the EE, Planeaux said that customers can easily upgrade when user-scale demands it.

"Because SE One shares the same core technology as EE, companies that outgrow it can just acquire a license with no re-implementation needed. They can continue to use the same reports, multidimensional analysis, and dashboards they already have."



Our view

With Oracle BI Suite SE One it seems as if Oracle has simply lowered the price-bar for its EE software. Sure cost has always been a major barrier for the adoption of BI and data warehousing technologies among budget-constrained SMBs. But there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration, not least packaging and ease of use.

Oracle said it has included all the 'right' components needed for BI - which is a bit of a generalisation. More importantly perhaps is the pre-configuration of these components to work with one another. Oracle also claims to have 'dramatically simplified' installation, which is important for companies that are constrained in terms of in-house IT skills. But the area where Oracle needs to be a lot more convincing is in ease of use.

Oracle BI Suite EE is not the most complex suite on the market. But it certainly carries a learning curve. Customers should press Oracle on what they intend to do in terms of supporting customers with tutorials, training and education. If not, then they risk getting their hands on a complex set of BI technologies, albeit at a bargain price, that they struggle to use.

Finally Oracle could do with a serious re-think of its BI branding. 'BI Suite' appended with 'SE, EE, and/or One' make for a confusing mix. Surely there is a more simplified branding to go with the various packaging.

Source: Computergram

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The Importance of Enterprise Resource Planning

There can be no doubt that ERP is an important tool in our world of today. As more businesses begin to compete on a global scale, it will become critical for them to streamline their operations and processes. However, it is important to realize that ERP is not the cure to all the problems a company will face. There are a number of pros and cons to this technology, and those who understand this will be the most likely to succeed.

One of the most powerful benefits of ERP is that it successfully companies the many system architectures of a company. Indeed, this is why the technology was originally introduced.

When business processes are streamlined into a single cohesive unit, the company will operate at a higher level. This will lead to a higher level of productivity, and this in turn will lead to more profits. Another powerful advantage of ERP is greater levels of information flow, along with a higher quality of information. Given the fact that we are living in the Information Age, this is critically important. Companies must be able to rapidly transfer information from one place to another. When information is transferred quickly and efficiently, the company or organization will be able to act on the data within a short period of time. However, it is not simply enough to transfer information quickly. The organization must be able to make sure the data is high in quality. All of the information in the world is useless if it is not high in quality. In addition to information flow and data quality, ERP is also powerful because it allows a company to effectively manage its inventory. When the products are manufactured, it will be done with a high level of precision. Perhaps the most important thing about this technology is that the costs will be decreased. When a company has to deal with large amounts of paperwork, managing it can be costly. It is also expensive to integrate various software tools that were not originally designed for each other.

Once the processes of a company are integrated, the costs involved with maintenance and transfer of information will be low. The money saved by the organization can be used to invest in new products or marketing strategies. Enterprise Resource Planning is powerful because it allows a company to become highly flexible. An organization that uses this technology will be able to quickly adapt to changes that occur in the market. Though it may require a great deal of corporate restructuring, the benefits will pay off handsomely in the end. Flexibility is very important today. If an organization is not flexible, it will be difficult for them to stay competitive.

One of the most powerful advantages to ERP is the implementation of software. Even though Y2K didn't become the disaster that many people expected, it gave rise to the concept of making sure software was properly implemented. In addition to dealing with software issues, ERP can also help companies integrate their operations. At the same time, it is important to realize that there are a number of challenges involved with utilizing ERP. Perhaps one of the greatest of these challenges is cost. Enterprise Resource Planning tools are outside the price range of many organizations.

When ERP was first introduced, the only companies that truly could afford it were Fortune 1000 companies. Even then, there was the problem of getting workers to accept the new tool. A number of companies would purchase complex ERP tools, only to find that it was not successful because the end users failed to properly use it.

Another problem with ERP is the implementation. Setting up this system can be complex and time consuming, and the minimum implementation time for a large company is six months. Despite this, there have been cases were it took 18 months to fully implement the system. Some clients have also complained that ERP software is not flexible.

It is important to understand that ERP tools must be customized to meet the needs of the company. In most cases, it will not be useful when it first purchased. Each company has unique needs, and ERP tools must be able to meet them. A number of companies run into problems when they attempt to customize the software.

Source: www.exforsys.com

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SAP finally responds to Oracle Complaint

Oracle sued SAP back in March for corporate theft. Today SAP filed an answer to the Oracle complaint.

In the answer, SAP said TomorrowNow was authorized to download materials from Oracle's Web site on behalf of TomorrowNow customers. At the same time, SAP acknowledged that some inappropriate downloads of fixes and support documents occurred at TomorrowNow. Importantly, SAP affirmed that what was downloaded at TomorrowNow stayed in that subsidiary's separate systems. SAP did not have access to Oracle intellectual property via TomorrowNow.
"Even a single inappropriate download is unacceptable from my perspective. We regret very much that this occurred," said Henning Kagermann, CEO, SAP AG. "I want to reassure our investors, customers, partners and employees that SAP takes any departure from the high standards we set for all of our businesses very seriously, regardless of where it occurred or how confined it may be. When I learned what happened, I promptly took action to strengthen operational oversight at TomorrowNow while assuring that we maintain excellent service for TomorrowNow's customers going forward."

SAP stated that it did not have access to Oracle materials downloaded by TomorrowNow. SAP explained that it intentionally created a business structure that maintained a firewall between TomorrowNow and SAP and that it was satisfied that SAP AG or SAP America did not access Oracle intellectual property via TomorrowNow.

SAP created a site that informs about this lawsuit.

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